Part One. . .

In these first days, we will spend our time exploring definitions of rhetoric and literate practices in the lives of black women. We will not limit our thinking to printed texts, so we will start with the performances of Judith Jamison and Rachelle Ferrell.​On this day of class, we are going to jump right into it and just start looking closely at black women's texts. We will focus on two women: Judith Jamison and Rachelle Ferrell. For class, you need to watch the videos below and then theorize black women's rhetoric from the videos.

​This is not a test or a quiz. You just have to pull from deep inside, listen, hear, and bear witness. Here is a tip: don’t psych yourself out here trying to figure out what Carmen wants or what a “right” answer might be. So far, there appears to be very little work that specifically links Jamison, Ferrell, and rhetorical scholarship. Wanna know what means? It means that anything that you say and think will be brand-new and RIGHT ON POINT. Invent knowledge… and intervene in a knowledge system that has left such connections silent!

Task #1

First watch the interview with Judith Jamison. Then watch "Divining." This is the first ballet choreographed by Judith Jamison for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in 1984. The lead dancer (originally Donna Wood) is imagined and named as a diviner. There is an African-inspired percussion score, mostly drums, by Kimati Dinizulu and Monti Ellison.​If you want to know more about Jamison, read more about the Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, especially their most famous piece, "Revelations." To see more about the community of artists/dancers Jamison has been connected to, also see the work of Robert Battle and Rennie Harris (a personal favorite is "Home.")

“… African American women are called upon to define themselves against stereotypes and other negative expectations, and thereby to shift the ground of rhetorical engagement by means of their abilities to invent themselves and create their own sense of character, agency, authority, and power.” ~Jacqueline Jones Royster

Task #2

Now watch Rachelle Ferrell's Live Performances of "Sista." Pay attention to the lyrics, to her embodied presence, AND to what she does with her voice at particular moments (feel free to find the lyrics online yourself.) First, look at this performance in 2001. Then look at another performance in 2010.

There are many more performances of Ferrell doing this piece. Feel free to look at them on youtube. For now, think about the similarities and differences in both of these two performances.

For the purposes of this course, please also note that live performances will be the preferred format for rhetorical analysis (though when an artist has had a significant leadership role in the design of a music video, we may consider that). Because many of the artists who we will commune with are NOT co-opted or bought by large corporate machines (radio stations, record labels, etc), they make their bread-and-butter performing in non-MSG and/or international venues. Youtube, thus, offers us the ability to experience these performances, not from corporate, commodified control, but from the kind of music-goers who love and follow the creations of women like Rachelle Ferrell.

For class, you are going to submit at least 2 pages of writing where you offer an analysis of black women's rhetoric using the performances of either Judith Jamison ORRachelle Ferrell. Use the Frameworks for Black Women's Rhetoric at this site to do this rhetorical analysis. Of course, if you want to write about BOTH women (plan on doing more than two pages then), no one is gon stop you. We will use our classtime to make connections between our definitions and thoughts on these two women as rhetors. Please submit a traditional print-based assignment at the end of class.

Part Two . . .

We will attempt to use an African-centered/woman-centered definition of rhetoric to think about black women’s rhetoric with the work of Jacqueline Jones Royster. Please keep Royster’s work in mind as we journey through the semester because her ideas should be a guiding force as we think about what black female rhetoric is and does. We will focus on Royster's Traces of a Stream: Literacy and Social Change among African American Women (2000).In particular, we will dive in and read very closely her chapter called, “Toward an Analytical Model for Literacy and Sociopolitical Action.” We want, as a community, to use this model as something that is almost an extension of us as a thinking body. After your reading, you need to do some think-writing. This means that you are just getting ideas down on paper to bring to class with you to discuss. This can be in the form of notes, bulleted points, stream-of-consciousness. Take any five aspects/sections of Royster's work and explain how her ideas influenced you. Use Royster's work to come up with your own definition of African American women's rhetoric. In class, we will build a communal chain.Once you finish this writing, stop and go back. Go back to our conversations about Rachelle Ferrell and Judith Jamison from the last class. In your writing, do some reflecting where you bring Royster’s work to bear on Ferrell’s and Jamison's lives and works. In other words, what does Royster say/show that relates to what Ferrell and Jamison are doing? Do this vice versa too: How do Jamison and Ferrell shed light on Royster’s work? Though Royster's work focuses on 19th century black women, we want to think about how the model that she proposes works for us now too.

​Even though we have only known each other for three classes now, we have really done a lot of work and talked about a lot already. So let's pull it all together. As a class, let's imagine ourselves in dialogue with Royster, Ferrell, and Jamison. What can we say about black women's rhetoric now? Please submit a traditional print-based assignment at the end of class.

Part Three

Because far too many of you (no, not all of you) have come to this class totally indoctrinated into a system that tells you to like only the nice, passive, "pretty," good girl and the patriarchal prince who will rescue her and drop her off into his land of rich and plenty. And just like Giovanni is doing here, black women have rewritten these dominant, now Disney-fied scripts to offer a different vision and version of black girls and women. We are going to stop and pause and read some of these counter-scripts as a kind of politics of rhetoric and language. We are also pausing at this moment so that you can leave at least some of your princess fantasies at the door and engage real, rhetorical analyses of women who challenge patriarchy rather than bow down to it.

This day of class is a little bit different. We are still talking about rhetoric, but we are certainly going to take on black women's language and white dominant narratives of femininity. It takes quite some time for many people to "warm up" to the black women's lives, activism and speeches who we study in this course. The rub has to do with these women not being "very lady-like." If fighting for equality and speaking up against wrong and oppression are not "ladylike," then you will need to question why you have taken up and taken on this definition of what a "good, quiet woman" is… do you define the bodies and minds of women through the prism of patriarchy and, if so, why? Today, we are going to confront these issues explicitly; otherwise you will never be able to fully hear and understand what you read and experienced from bell hooks and Audre Lorde in the last class.

At the heart of this class is a request that you confront your own internalized notions of passive femininity and patriarchy. You will have some reading that you will need to do before class. When you get to class, we will spend our time decoding the cultural logic and codes we have all witnessed: princess stories and fairy tales. Even for those of you still longing to meet a Prince Charming to take you off and away, you can certainly still benefit from stories written with black girls at center which provide you with alternative horizons.